Shinigami
by youwereenjoyingit
Summary: Up for adoption, lost muse for story. Anyone interested in taking over for writing this story just message me. :
1. Chapter 1

**Shinigami**

**Summary: **Contact between their worlds is forbidden, until one night, a young shinigami saves a human...and falls in love.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach, or The Little Mermaid (which is what this story will be loosely based on.)

**A/N**: If you do not like IchiHime, then please don't read. :) Also, this will be my first multi-chaptered Bleach fic, so please tell me what you think of this chapter.

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><p>The sky was a bright blue in the sky of Karakura Town. Birds flew around the town, chirping their happy tunes, as people began to get ready for work or for school. 15 year old Orihime Inoue had just hit the alarm on her nightstand, which had been going off for some minutes.<p>

She got out of bed and began to get ready for the day. She pulled her white button down blouse on, followed by the short pleated grey skirt that was required for the school uniform. She brushed her long orange hair, making sure to be as gentle as she could as she combed the knots out of her hair. She put the brush down by a picture of a young man with short dark brown hair and grey eyes matching the color of Orihime's.

For a moment she stared at the picture as she put two blue hairclips in her hair, to hang close to her ears. When she was done, she smiled as she picked the picture up. "Good morning Sora," She exclaimed as she kissed the picture before setting it back down. She then left her bedroom to put on her socks and shoes before grabbing her lunch for school.

A knock rapped at the door. "Orihime! Come on, we're going to be late for school if you don't hurry up!" It was the voice of her best friend, Tatsuki Arisawa. Tatsuki had a reputation for being a fiery tempered girl, but that didn't stop Orihime from being friends with her.

Although Orihime was soft and shy at times, when around Tatsuki she often became more animated and talked about her interests and what she hoped to be as she grew older. Orihime's other friends, Chad and Ishida, often hung out with them, but didn't seem to grasp Orihime's ideas much.

Chad was silent most of the time, a brooding tall young man, he looked quite imposing to the other students. Ishida was often silent, but when he did speak, he spoke of some unusual things.

Orihime had often heard of Ishida talk of shinigamis and of a place called a soul society. It had always intrigued her, but Ishida would never really broach the subject deeply, as if he were disgusted of such a topic. A knock sounded at the door again. "Orihime!" Tatsuki sounded really annoyed now. "Right! I'm coming!" Orihime called out, making sure she had everything she needed to take with her before she headed to the door.

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><p>"Honestly Orihime, the time I spend waiting for you, I could have been half-way to school by now." Orihime knew Tatsuki was joking, from the tone of the other girl's voice. "Sorry," Orihime said quietly. "I just have a lot on my mind." Tatsuki was silent. "Oh that's right...it's today, isn't it?" Orihime nodded. Today was the day that her brother had died, five years ago. Sora had left Orihime alone after they'd gotten into a huge fight...that night her big brother, her only family after the death of their parents; had died.<p>

"Shit, Hime, I didn't mean to forget, I'm sorry," Tatsuki said apologetically. Orihime blinked back tears. "Don't worry, Tatsuki. I know you were just teasing," Orihime said as she tried to smile at her friend, who frowned with concern.

"Want me to come home with you after school today?" Orihime shook her head. "No, thank you Tatsuki, but I think I just need some time alone tonight." Tatsuki ran her fingers through her short purple hair. "I understand." She wouldn't have asked if she wasn't worried about her friend.

Orihime was normally a cheerful person who was kind and caring to everyone she met. On these days, though, she seemed to...withdraw. Tatsuki didn't blame her though, she and Orihime had been friends since they were young. Orihime had been really close to her big brother, the only family she'd had.

"Ori-" she was cut off as Orihime looked ahead to see Chad and Ishida walking together towards the direction of the high school. "There's Chad and Uryuu, let's go say hello!" She said quickly, trying to dispell the depressing atmosphere.

She latched onto Tatsuki and ran after the two boys. "Chad! Uryuu! Good morning!" She called after them. The two stopped and turned to see Orihime dragging Tatsuki with her as she approached them. "Good morning," They both mumbled. "How are you doing today?" Ishida asked Orihime. He knew what today was and for some reason he was always friendly to her on the day of her brother's death.

The change in attitude was a bit confusing to Orihime, but she always shrugged it off with a grin. "I'm alright. How are you?" Ishida shrugged slightly. "I'm fine." Chad nodded, signaling that he was the same as well. As the four made their way to school in silence, Orihime looked up at the clear blue sky and she smiled. It looked like it was going to be a perfect day.

In fact Orihime zoned out for several moments that she wasn't paying attention to what was going on with the others until she heard "-death gods." Orihime blinked at that.

"Excuse me?"

Tatsuki was frowning at Ishida before she looked at Orihime. "I was just asking Uryuu here why he is so obsessed with these things called death gods, or what he calls them, _shingami_."

That word again.

Uryuu frowned, pushing his glasses up his nose. "That is none of your concern." Tatsuki snickered. "Shinigami's don't even exist, they're myth!" Uryuu began to walk away from the group, but when Tatsuki had finished her sentance, he turned and gave her a peircing stare. "I wouldn't be too sure about that." He then looked at Orihime. "Be careful today." Then he left the three of them to walk to school on his own.

Orihime frowned at Tatsuki. "Did you have to ask him about that? You know he doesn't talk about that." The other girl shrugged. "Well I was curious! You are too, I _know_ you are, don't deny it." Orihime sighed, but merely shook her head with a grin. "Well...maybe a little." "I KNEW it," Tatsuki cried.

Chad, Tatsuki, and Orihime continued on their way to school, unaware of the changes that were soon to come.

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><p><strong>AN: **Well, that's the end of chapter One. In the next chapter we shall be introduced to Ichigo and friends. Please review and tell me what you think. Should I continue or not?


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Alright, here we are again! :) I'm really glad you guys are enjoying the story so far and want me to continue this story. It's my first multi-chaptered Bleach fic, so I was worried about getting the characters wrong. :/

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach.

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><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

Kisuke Urahara was in a panic. His young student was missing, and the head captain wanted to see him. He'd asked Yoruichi, a slender dark skinned woman with dark skin and dark purple hair, if she'd seen the boy, but she had not.

Ah, Ichigo Kurosaki, a 15 year old shinigami in training to become proper soul reaper. His abilites at sword fighting were incredible, the boy was already at a captain level despite his young age. His father, Isshin, would have been proud. He was also a handful.

Despite the boy's amazing abilites, he also had a habit of skipping out on training and sneaking out of the Soul Society to visit the World of the Living. Kiskue rubbed his nose.

While being Soul Reapers, there was a minimal amount of contact between the Seireitei and the human world, but not much, and it was only to deliver dying souls to the Soul Society. In their normal form, humans could not see Soul Reapers, but there were some exceptions.

Some of these exceptions had spirit pressure called reiatsu, and depending on the level of energy that the reiatsu was at, there had been times when humans and soul reapers had met. There had been a time when there had been friendlier contact between both worlds...that had been years ago, though. Kiskuke shook his head.

Now was not the time to be dwelling on the past. He had to find Ichigo. "I'll see if his sisters know where he is." He told Yoruichi, but thanking her anyway before he departed.

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><p>Meanwhile, outside of the city, in a forest with trees and different varities of flowers and other plant life, a teenage orange haired male ran by, laughing loudly. "Come on, Renji! Surely you can run faster then the way you are now!" Renji Abarai chased his younger friend, wondering how the hell he'd gotten roped into coming out and playing games with Ichigo.<p>

Of course, Ichigo always had to use his puppy dog eyes when he tried to refuse, and Ichgio knew how much RUKIA doing that annoyed him. Despite that, Rukia and Ichigo were his best friends.

Rukia was hiding in the branches above, her violet eyes gleaming with mischief as she watched the scene. She waited until Ichigo was at just the right spot, and then she swung down on a vine, kicking her legs out as they collided with her friend's chest. Ichigo cried out in surprise as he went down, but he started laughing as he did so.

"So...not...fair," Ichigo gasped. Rukia squatted beside her friend and she tapped his forehead gently. "Well pay more attention to what's hiding around you, knucklehead," She teased.

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><p>Upon learning that Yuzu and Karin were being looked after by Hinamori, Kisuke had wondered where Ichigo could have gone off to. He hoped Ichigo hadn't gone outside the city again, because he knew the policy was to stay in the city and not go outside. Wild hollows sometimes appeared outside of the Seireitei, and though it was not a common incident, it had happened before.<p>

Kisuke sighed, knowing he'd have to risk it in order to bring Ichigo to the Head Captain. Honestly, why couldn't the boy ever just stay in the same place sometimes?

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><p>Ichigo didn't leave the city just to have fun all the time. He also explored, being naturally curious and loving exploration. Ichigo had always held a fascination for the World of the Living, and when a few objects came into the Soul Society, they were often abandoned. However if anything was brought into the city, it was destroyed by Head Captain Yamamoto.<p>

Years ago, the Soul Society had lost a large number of Soul Reapers due to an unnamed incident that Ichigo had never gotten answers to, but what he was told was that humans had been involved, and the Soul Reapers had all vanished.

No one had ever found out if they had died or what had happened to them. But the situation had been enough for Yamamoto to rule that Soul Reapers have as little to do with humans as possible.

Humans couldn't be all bad, though. That was Ichigo's reasoning, and he'd tried to explain this to his teacher, but Kiskue had merely shaken his head and warned Ichigo to keep those thoughts to himself, because it could get him into trouble.

Although that didn't stop the older man from telling Ichigo stories about the human world sometimes. He treated Ichigo like a son, and was good to the boy and his sisters. As Ichigo and his friends explored around the forest, they were unaware that they were being watched.

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><p>Kisuke had managed to sneak away successfully when he'd heard a loud echoing roar that sent chills down his spine. It sounded too much like a hollow. And the cries of alarm coming from dense areas of trees sounded familiar-way too familiar.<p>

Kisuke grabbed a hold of the sword he knew he was not allowed to use outside of the Seireitei unless it was a dire emergency-his Zanpaktou, every Soul Reaper's weapon-and headed off in the direction he'd heard the roar.

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><p>The hollow was not a pretty one. It was a tall, gangly thing with grey skin and horns portruding from it's skull, and the large claws were nothing to take lightly, either. Ichigo scowled at the thing that had Rukia in one hand.<p>

She had been taken by surprise by the hollow as he and Renji had, and it had gained the element of surprise by throwing her into a tree and then grabbing her in it's clawlike hand as if it was going to eat her.

"Put her down, you bastard," Ichigo demanded. The hollow didn't appear to understand, as it sent off another ear shattering roar. "I don't think it's going to listen to you," Renji said, already holding his Zanpaktou in his hands. If they got caught fighting a hollow, they could be in big trouble. But Rukia was in trouble.

"Well don't say I didn't warn you," Ichigo muttered as he grabbed his Zanpaktou and leaped into the air. He called out, "_Getsuga tenshou_!" And as he called out, red and black energy erupted from his sword, spiraling down towards the Hollow.

A large explosion erupted, causing dust to fly into the air. Rukia flew into the air, and Renji ran forward, sliding down onto his knees to catch her. She landed in his arms safely, her black hair fanning around her face like a dark halo. Renji sighed with relief before he looked at Ichigo. "So? Is it dead?" Ichigo nodded. "Yeah. It was a low level Hollow. I wonder what it was doing out here."

"I think a better question is why are you three out here when you know you aren't supposed to be?"

Ichigo whirled around to face the brown eyes of his mentor. "Captain Urahara, sir!" Renji looked stunned that they'd been discovered out here, but Ichigo supposed that if one was to be caught, at least it was by Urahara and not someone like Kenpachi or even Yamamoto himself. But judging from the look on Kisuke's face, Ichigo knew he was still in trouble.

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><p><strong>AN: <strong>That's the end of chapter two for tonight. :D I hope you guys liked it! This is my first action fic for Bleach, so I hope it was alright... xD Anyway, please review and let me know what you think so far! I will also go into a bit more of what happened between the SS and World of the Living as the story progresses.


	3. Chapter 3

**Shinigami**

**A/N: **Weekend is here, yay! I'm looking forward to it, especially with spring break next week. I know some of you are curious as to how Orihime and Ichigo are going to meet. That will be coming soon, I promise!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach.

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><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

"-further more, you directly disobeyed an order, Ichigo! You know you are not supposed to go outside the walls of the Seireitei, it's dangerous out there!" Kisuke sharply reprimanded his young student. "I know, but-" Ichigo interjected. "No buts, Ichigo. Now, the head captain is going to want an explanation for our tardiness." Kisuke stopped walking and placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder.

"He will be most displeased with this." Ichigo shifted uncomfortably at the mention. "Do we _**have **_to tell him?" The older man sighed and ran a hand through his scraggly blond hair. "Yes, we do." _Why not just kill me now and spare me from having my ass fried by the old man? _Ichigo thought.

They were on their way to see Yamamoto now that Renji and Rukia had been taken to Squad Four to have their injuries treated. Ichigo had been asked questions, as had Renji, but the two had dodged the questions like professionals.

Sometimes Kisuke wondered where he went wrong with training the teenager, although sometimes he was convinced he was harboring a soft spot for Ichigo because the boy reminded him of how HE had been at Ichigo's age. Ichigo had always been rebellious, and he hated being told what he could and couldn't do. It was that sort of attitude that got him into trouble.

They arrived at the entrance to Yamamoto's office, and Kisuke knocked. A booming voice told them to enter from behind the shut door. Ichigo took a deep breath. Whatever he would face, he didn't regret his decision to sneak out.

He regretted Rukia and Renji being attacked by that Hollow and ending up on the care of Captain Unohana. That woman was scary. A chill ran down Ichigo's spine at the thought of the 4th division captain. As Ichigo and his teacher stepped into the room, Ichigo felt a knot form in his stomach and rapidly grow bigger, like it was going to engulf him whole.

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><p>~KARAKURA TOWN~<p>

As the bell rang and students ran out of the school, Orihime stayed behind, gathering her belongings less quickly then those of the classmates around her. She felt an odd reluctance to leave the building she was in, like it was a safe haven for her. The orange haired teen shook her head. Now she was just having silly thoughts.

She needed to get home, make dinner, finish her homework, and then go visit Sora's gr-she stood up rapidly from her desk. She couldn't even finish that thought. Sora's death still troubled her so much. She had nightmares sometimes.

Orihime finished collecting her assignments and putting them in her bags when hands reached around her, nearly touching her breasts. "ORRRRRIHIME!" Chizuru Honsh o was a fellow classmate of Orihime's, and also a lesbian. She had a crush on Orihime for ages, even though Orihime was clearly not a lesbian, but didn't know how to tell the redhead.

"Get off her, you pervert!"

Tatsuki kicked the other girl away. Chizuru rolled up against the wall, holding her nose which had been hit by Tatsuki's kick. "Honestly, don't you have better things to do then act like a dog in heat?" Tatsuki rolled her eyes before she looked at Orihime. "Ready to go?" Orihime nodded.

"Let's go then," Tatsuki said and she walked with Orihime out of the classroom.

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><p>Tatsuki and Orihime chatted about what they had learned in school that day as they left the building, but Orihime still couldn't shake her uneasiness. Tatsuki seemed to notice her friend zoning out and she grabbed Orihime's shoulders, shaking her lightly.<p>

"Earth to Orihime, Orihime, are you in there?" The orange haired girl blinked as she refocused her gaze on Tatsuki. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" Tatsuki frowned, worried. She knew Orihime could be spacier then usual on today of all days, but her friend seemed to be a little on edge.

"What's bothering you?" Orihime blinked, and then she tried to shake it off. "Oh nothing, Tatsuki, I'm fine! I'm probably just hungry! You know what I'm having tonight?" As Orihime rambled off the different foods she was going to mix together for dinner that evening, Tatsuki felt her concern fade away slightly. It was still there at the back of her mind, but now she was just focusing on not vomiting at Orihime's food choices.

"Gravy and biscuits with grape jelly? Orihime, that's _disgusting_!" Orihime didn't appear to notice the disgust in her friend's voice. "Well I like it!" _Her taste buds have been destroyed by all that cooking she does, _Tatsuki thought.

Sooner or later she was going to have to give Orihime proper cooking lessons. "Well that's nice. But can we please change the subject now, thanks?"

As the girls walked, a pair of glowing eyes watched them from the shadows.

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><p>When Orihime returned home, she set her bag down on the sofa in the living room and she headed into the kitchen to start making dinner. She observed the picture of her brother for a moment with a brief smile before she pulled out a pan. She knew what a lot of her friends thought of her cooking, but she could actually cook really well.<p>

She didn't know why she kept it a secret and allowed her friends to think that she actually cooked those food combinations, which, she admitted to herself; she did sometimes.

She supposed it was because her classmates and even her friends viewed her as helpless little Orihime. They cared about her, she knew that, and they were really nice and sweet. But they all thought she was clueless as to what they thought about her.

That she couldn't really handle living by herself alone. That's why Tatsuki kept coming to check in on her. Orihime brushed a strand of hair out of her face. _Well, _she thought. _Tonight, I am cooking for my brother. I don't want to mess this up. _

She looked out of the window that was above her stove, and she could see the sun going down. She had a bit of time left to eat and study before heading out to the cemetary. She then returned her attention back to her cooking.

However, the uneasiness that had settled in her stomach earlier did not go away.

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><p><strong>AN: **Phew! So new chapter is done, I hope you guys all liked it. I shall be posting the next chappie when I can. :) Have a good weekend guys/girls!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **I know that the flow of the story's been going a bit slow, and I'm sorry for that. ^^; I hope to change that. Anyway, updates after this will probably take a while because I have essays and other things to do for school, so I'm going to have to keep my attentions on that for a while. :/ The characters also may be a bit OOC and if they are, I apologize. My muse was lacking in creativity today -.- and my attempt at action is a total fail, so yeeeah...if I have any reviewers left, I will count myself lucky. xD

**Disclaimer: **How many times must I say this? I do not own Bleach.

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><p><strong>Chapter Four<strong>

Orihime walked down the dark streets of Karakura, keeping her jacket wrapped closely around her body. Her orange hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, allowing the moon's light to illuminate her face beautifully.

The teenager put her hands in the pocket of her jacket and she looked around as she walked to the cemetery. At 9 P.M, most of the town's people were at home, either eating, sleeping, or relaxing.

Orihime had already gotten her homework done for school and she'd eaten. She wasn't worrying about that at the moment, though. She was only concentrating on visiting her brother and to talk with him.

As she approached the gate to the cemetery, Orihime hesitated for a moment before she turned around, her grey eyes taking in her surroundings. She'd felt something observing her as she'd walked. But there was nothing out of the ordinary...

_That's strange...I could have sworn that someone was watching me..._Orihime frowned, wondering if she was being paranoid. Although at 9 at night, a girl couldn't be too paranoid, there were weirdos out around this time of night.

Orihime shook her head and she opened the gate, stepping into the cemetery as the gate opened, squeaking like a rusty unused machine. She walked through the darkness, looking for the gravestone she knew as her brother's.

_Not that it will do me much good being as dark as it is, _the teenager chided herself. She grabbed the flashlight she'd put in her pocket as she'd left her home; she turned it on and looked for Sora's gravestone.

After some minutes of searching, she found it and she kneeled down onto the grass. A sad smile graced her lips. "Hi, Nii-san," She said quietly. "I have so much I want to tell you." Orihime began to talk about school and how she was getting along in school, her friends and what they were doing.

When Orihime paused to take a breath, tears filled her grey eyes. "I miss you so much. I know Tatsuki thinks I'm getting over this, but I'm not. I-I miss you terribly and I just _wish_ you were-"

A loud roar interrupted Orihime from talking. She froze, and she heard branches breaking from something HUGE. She slowly turned around and her hold on her flashlight trembled as she shone a light on a gigantic monster.

It was a grey creature, about as tall as Karakura High, and it's eyes...the eyes were glowing bright red! Tentacles writhed on the thing's back, as if starved. Orihime gasped in horror and the flashlight fell from her hand. The creature growled. "What-what are you?" She whimpered, trembling.

She backed away, but it didn't do much good as the creature slowly approached her, and its jaw opened, revealing a massive row of fangs. Orihime screamed in fright, mentally pleading for someone to come and save her.

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><p>Ichigo and Kisuke had arrived in Karakura a few hours before this event was happening. Yamamoto had needed a Soul Reaper to keep an eye on the town because he'd heard reports of hollows beginning to become drawn to that particular area.<p>

Once he'd heard about Ichigo's adventure though, he'd been lessed then pleased with the boy and had seemed to reconsider sending Ichigo with Kisuke so the boy could learn what being a Soul Reaper was actually about.

Fortunately for Ichigo, his mentor had intervened on his behalf, telling Yamamoto that the boy was still a child, after all (and that ruffled Ichigo's feathers, being told he was still just a child); and that the Hollow had been on the outskirts of the Seireitei of sometime, having found remains of Shinigami that had gone missing a few weeks prior that were dead now.

However, Ichigo had not been given a gigai like Kisuke had. Yamamoto had been prepared to allow Ichigo to use one for the first time, but as punishment, told Ichigo he was only to observe Kisuke's methods that may very well one day be of use to Ichigo should he become a Soul Reaper.

Ichigo knew that gigais were the only thing that allowed Soul Reapers to be seen by humans, and that only people in the Seireitei used them. Even though Ichigo accepted his punishment, he still wished that he would be able to be seen by humans and get to talk to one in person.

This mission was not meant to take long, Kisuke had told him. They were only being sent to monitor the town for a few hours to see if they could pick up any trace of hollows before they went back to the Soul Society.

Around sometime in the evening, Kisuke recieved an alert of a hollow in Karakura at the cemetery.

Ichigo stepped down onto the grass next to Kisuke, taking in a breath of fresh air. "So this is what the World of the Living feels like," He said quietly, looking around the darkened cemetery.

"Not quite, Ichigo. This is a place of rest for deceased souls. There's much more to the World of the Living then this," Kisuke said, still looking at his phone, a phone set up by Soul Society for Soul Reapers to alert them of Hollows. "Oh." Ichigo said, scratching his head. "That's good then, I couldn't imagine such a world being so gloomy..."

A loud roar and a feminine shriek interrupted Ichigo's musings just as Kisuke's phone went off. "There's a Hollow! Quick Ichigo, follow me!" The blonde ran through the cemetery not bothering to see if Ichigo was keeping up. Ichigo followed, his hand leaping to his Zanpaktou.

He was told not to use his sword tonight unless it was a dire emergency. Yamamoto knew the boy had amazing abilities and that they were quite impressive to the others, but he also had to keep the boy in line.

Ichigo scowled. He wouldn't hesitate in breaking the damn rules for one minute if he thought it would save Kisuke's life. The man was like a father to him. He'd been close to him and his sisters after his father died, and it had been that way as long as he could remember. So he wasn't about to let something bad happen to Kisuke. Not now and certainly not ever.

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><p>When the two arrived on the scene, they found the Hollow snatching up an orange haired girl in tentacles, looking ready to devour her. The girl had passed out from fright, not that Ichigo could blame her. He took a look at her though.<p>

Her skin was a fair peach, and her long orange hair was pulled back, but some strands had fallen loose, sticking to her face. She looked like a sleeping angel, Ichigo mused. The teenager was shaken from his thoughts when the Hollow roared, having seen Kisuke. "Ichigo!" Kisuke said over his shoulder.

"You get the girl. I'll handle the Hollow. Alright?" Ichigo hesitated briefly, his brown eyes checking out the Hollow for a moment as if he was thinking of a stratery for both. "Ichigo!" Kisuke snapped. The teenager sighed. "Sorry. Yes, that's fine..."

Unsheathing Benihime, Kisuke leapt forward to attack. Normally, he wouldn't be so bold, but he needed to distact the Hollow to give Ichigo a chance to save the captive human female. The Hollow roared again and ducked, missing being sliced from Kisuke's sword.

The moonlight shone brightly through the trees, illuminating the scene and giving Ichigo some light to see how he could get the girl away from the Hollow.

Taking ahold of his Zanpaktou, he met Kisuke's eyes and the blond nodded, cutting the Hollow's foot off.

The creature roared, stumbling back and the grip it had on Orihime loosened. The girl fell, and Ichigo ran forward, catching her in his arms. Kisuke stumbled as the Hollow's hands swiped at him, nearly catching him off guard. More tentacles shot out, directly at Kisuke this time. The blond managed to deflect most of them, until one grabbed his ankle in a sneak attack, and shoved his Zanpaktou out of arm's length. The Hollow's jaw opened again, drool dripping from the creature's mouth as it brought Kisuke closer and closer...

"_GETSUGA TENSHOU!_"

The creature screamed in agony one final time before it collapsed. Ichigo glared at the Hollow, holding his Zanpaktou tightly in his hands. Kisuke shook his head. "Thanks, Ichigo, but I could have handled it. You're only going to get in more trouble for that."

Ichigo scowled at him. "Didn't look like you were handling it well from where I was standing. You usually fight much better then that. Are you alright?" Kisuke retrieved his sword and sighed. "I'm fine. Check on the girl, would you, please?" Ichigo nodded. "Alright." He knelt down by the side of the girl he'd propped up against a tree, looking her over.

She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, he thought. He'd seen pretty women in Seireitei, of course, but this human...there was something about her that was drawing him to her for some reason. He couldn't explain why. He checked her over for any injuries. She was alright. "She's unconscious, but she's going to be ok," Ichigo told Kisuke.

"Does she have any identification on her? It would give us her address." Kisuke asked. Ichigo looked at him strangely. "Why would we need that?" Kisuke sighed quietly as he walked up to his student. "One of us needs to take her home. She can't be left here. It doesn't look like there are any more Hollows around, but this time of night isn't safe for a young woman."

"Oh. Where should I look?" Kisuke pointed at Orihime's pockets. "Try her jacket." Ichigo checked and pulled out a wallet that had her photo and address on it. "Excellent work, Ichigo. I'll take her." Kisuke said, holding his arms out. "No-if she wakes up she'll see you and freak. I'll do it," Ichigo volunteered. Kisuke rose a brow. "And she _**won't**_ freak out if she sees she's being carried by someone she can't see? That makes no sense Ichigo."

"I know but...I just want to make sure she gets home safely. It's not that I don't trust you," Ichigo said in a rush, looking at Kisuke's amused expression with some annoyance; "I just want to be certain she's alright." Kisuke hesitated for a brief moment. "Alright. Take her home and then return to the spot we arrived at. We'll be going home from there." Ichigo nodded. "Thank you."

Kisuke watched Ichigo gather the girl in his arms and flash-step off. He shook his head slowly. _That boy is going to be the death of me someday._

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><p>Ichigo found that returning the human girl home had been easier then he thought it would be. She'd left a window open and he'd been able to get through, although he had thought he'd gotten stuck at first when he tried to climb through.<p>

He placed her on the couch, and he stared at her. He wondered why she'd been at the cemetary. _A place of rest for deceased souls, _he thought. _I wonder who she lost. It must have been someone close to her if she had been willing to be that place at the time of night it was..._He brushed her hair away from her face.

She shifted, opening her eyes briefly. "You have...really warm eyes," She said quietly with a smile before her eyes closed and she was out again. Ichigo froze. She could _SEE_ him? He looked at her and smiled. "Goodbye, Orihime Inoue," He remembered her name from her wallet. He would never forget her, although she would most likely forget him. He wanted to stay there with her and protect her. She looked so vulnerable. But he knew Kisuke would be waiting for him. With one last long look, Ichigo left, unaware of how much that night changed everything.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **So Ichigo has met Orihime! No it wasn't Sora, I'm afraid to say. I have other plans for that storyline. So please tell me what you liked/disliked! I know my action attempt was a failure, I'm sorry. :/ I'll try to work harder at it.


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